Last night's excitement came as a big-thunder type of rumble shortly after eleven. It was enough to make walk out to the main road behind our home for fear there had been an accident. Turns out it was an explosion some 25 miles away. Two homes were completely leveled, others damaged by fire, and two dozen so damaged by the concussion they are uninhabitable. I haven't yet heard the cause. Apparently no one reported a gas smell in the area, and the gas company says they found no leaks in the system. LE is escorting homeowners into the area near the blast so they can pick up belongings, and there is no HazMat on site, so it's unlikely to be a meth lab.

In other news...

As happens after every natural or manmade disaster--in this case, Sandy--I spend a little more time assessing my own plans and supplies. My biggest missing piece is an independent heating source. D

ev and I once spent a winter night without any heat source because the electricity had been knocked out by an ice storm. Between the lack of heat, lack of cell phone service, inability to walk to safety, high winds and tree branches falling on our house, it was... frightening. We were fortunate it wasn't a blizzard that trapped us in the house for days. It was cold enough it could have become extremely dangerous, extremely quickly. (For that reason, I nearly opted out of my current home because it lacks a fireplace.)

So I'm looking at indoor propane heaters. If anyone has experience or advice on the matter, I'd love to hear it. I'd like to avoid a generator for reasons of fuel storage and size. I really don't need to power up my whole house. I just need to keep it from freezing in case of an emergency.

Comments

The official report is that two people were killed by the initial blast, and only about seven or eight others were transported for injuries. I hope no one thinks I'm insensitive when I say I find that number miraculously small for the size of the incident.

Plane crash, gas station explosion, meth lab... tons of rumors. The working theory is a gas leak, but even that is being questioned because there were no reports of smelling gas in the area. Some are also saying the blast results don't match a gas explosion. I have no idea.

I'd love to know what your half-sister is using for heat and if she's happy with it.